Term: Permanent  

Hours: Full-time

Reporting to: Head of Grants and Programmes

Closing Date: Thursday 20th January midday

Interview Dates: 

Preliminary interviews 3rd or 4th February 2022 (online)

Final panel interviews To Be Confirmed (in London) 

About the role 

We are looking for a talented Senior Grants and Learning Officer to join a new, ambitious foundation seeking to drive transformative change. This role would suit a highly organised individual with a strong analytical eye for detail.  You’ll be a people person who thrives in a fast-paced, detail-oriented, diverse environment and is passionate about young people and social justice. 

As the Senior Grants and Learning Officer, you will play a key role within Mission 44, supporting the Head of Grants and Programmes in delivering innovative grant-making involving participatory approaches. You will be responsible for administering the complete grants lifecycle; from reviewing proposals, carrying out due diligence, developing grant contracts to project monitoring and evaluation.

Working alongside partner organisations and the team, you will also deliver our ‘Funder Plus’ approach to grant-making, building the capacity of funded partners across our portfolio to achieve greater impact. Your role will be key to supporting Mission 44’s evolution by collating learning from the projects and organisations that we fund to help inform the development of our strategy and key activities. 

The successful candidate will have experience of grant-making or applying for funding and its end-to-end processes.  You will have great interpersonal skills and possess the ability to engage in a helpful, friendly and professional way with people from a range of different backgrounds. Highly efficient and a confident communicator, you will have the ability to work across multiple strands of work to strict deadlines, and be a great team player. 

Your natural curiosity combined with a genuine interest in people and projects will enable you to try new approaches and develop your understanding of modern grant making. You will work closely with colleagues across the team, including our Youth Advisory Group, delivering exemplary grant-making with collaboration at its core. 

About Mission 44

Mission 44 is a new charitable foundation launched by Sir Lewis Hamilton MBE to boost social mobility in the UK.  It aims to support, champion and empower young people from underserved communities to succeed through narrowing opportunity gaps in education, employment and wider society. 

For too many young people across the UK, pervasive social, educational and economic inequalities persist that prevent them from fulfilling their potential. Through grant-funding, research, partnerships and advocacy, Mission 44 is committed to driving long-lasting, transformative change to the lives of young people facing disadvantage and discrimination. The foundation will work closely with young people and communities with lived experience of diversity and inclusion challenges, to better understand the opportunities for innovation and co-create solutions that make a meaningful impact.

We are looking for someone to join our team that is committed to our values. To read more about our values see here About us :: Mission44 Development (join-mission44.co.uk)

Diversity matters at Mission 44. We offer a working environment that values and respects every individual’s unique contribution. We want to attract the broadest range of talented people and are committed to equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination practices. We positively encourage applications from all sections of society and are particularly interested in attracting applications from candidates from diverse groups who are underrepresented.

Key responsibilities 

Grant-making

• Support the delivery of innovative funding programmes incorporating participatory practice.

• Assess proposals for funding, including due diligence checks and conducting site visits (virtual and/or physical) to organisations across England.

• Using sound reasoning and judgement, write detailed reports on proposals for funding for Board meetings and other funding-related meetings.

• Acting as the main point of contact for funded partners, manage payment schedules and progress reports adopting a relational approach to grant management. 

• Analyse data and assemble grant management reports for internal and external stakeholders. 

• Support the development and maintenance of a grants database, ensuring it is up to date and accurate. 

• Manage the grant-making calendar, work plans and assist with monitoring grant portfolio budgets.

• Proactively support efforts to address any under-representation across the grants portfolio, working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders.

• Configure and modify grant making forms, processes, and workflows to support new program initiatives or process changes.

Learning

• In support of our Funder Plus model of grant making, manage relationships with a network of supporters that can help build the capacity of our funded partners through workshops, webinars, publications and other learning activities. 

• Support Mission 44’s research and advocacy function, collating and sharing learning from across our funding portfolio to inform strategy and programme development.

• Identify opportunities to collate and share learning across the Mission 44 team,  to influence and inform our future grant making and organisational strategy. 

• Build and maintain strong relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders in support of our collaborative grant making and continuous learning approach. 

1. Knowledge and Experience

Essential:

• Knowledge of grant-making processes and procedures.

• Experience of interpreting and analysing information and using it to inform your judgement.

• Experience of managing contracts and monitoring performance against agreed targets.

• Experience of using a database, handling data and producing reports in different formats.

• Experience of using a range of IT software, including working with CRM databases and Excel.

Desirable:

• Knowledge of financial planning and business plans, with the ability to analyse accounts and numerical data.

• An understanding of the wider funding sector and participatory models of grant-making.

• Experience working in the non-profit or youth sector.

2. Skills

• Excellent time management and organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects in parallel and with competing deadlines.

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills. 

• Confident in nurturing and maintaining relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority.

• Able to write clearly and present complex information in an accessible way.

• Exceptional attention to detail. 

3. Personal Qualities

This is an exciting opportunity in a newly forming organisation. As such, many of the  systems and processes that are present in an established organisation either do not exist or are newly forming. To be successful in this role, you will be:  

• Flexible and creative; you thrive in an evolving and dynamic organisation. 

• Highly collaborative; your default is to work in a cooperative and supportive way to deliver results. 

• An analytical and critical thinker.

• Able to work independently, displaying strong initiative in solving day-to-day problems with limited direction.

• Interested in transformative grant making. 

• Committed to embedding the values of equity, diversity and inclusion in everything that you do. 

• Passionate about supporting and empowering young people from a diverse range of backgrounds to flourish and succeed. 

• Able to role model Mission 44’s values and bring them to life in all of your work.